MUS 203-01 - Topics in Ethnomusicology

4 credits (Fall)

Performing Difference and the Ethics of Appropriation. This 200-level class examines how wide-ranging ideas of empathy, freedom, and responsibility intersect in musical and sonic practices that specifically engage with difference. Course material integrates research in sound studies, musicology, philosophy, and anthropology. Students have autonomy to design their own case studies and select accompanying readings. In order to process the affective dimensions of performing difference, we also play music together, putting these experiences in conversation with recent scholarship across the humanities on embodied learning, cultural appropriation, projects of decolonization, and anti-racist pedagogy. What are the political possibilities and limits of performing difference? Can performance contribute to positive social change regarding questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion? In addressing these questions, we address diverse experiences from diverse perspectives.

Prerequisite: MUS 100.
Instructor: Perman